ST. BONAVENTURE, N.Y. — A handful of games and a losing skid to kick off the 2025 half of the campaign for St. Bonaventure women's basketball serves as a wake-up call with a couple of months to get the win-loss column in the right direction.
"We know what we're doing wrong, and you can see when we're doing it right so we know we're capable of it," said guard Dani Haskell. "We're focusing on everything that we can do right, because that's going to lead us to success."
Haskell, a Western New York native, brings veteran leadership, but the young talent on this team also includes some international flavor like Zoe Shaw, who has been growing her American basketball game from Australian roots.
"I'm a point guard, so I want to be a leader and just as the games have gone on, I feel more comfortable with that," said Shaw, a freshman. "I feel like most recently I've been able to like, use my speed more and know when to attack, when to not."
Head coach Jim Crowley, in his second stretch with the Bonnies, has seen Shaw earn accolades already, and Haskell has been helping lead the team on and off the court.
"We're seeing some really good growth,” said Crowley. “Just looking for that consistently now.”
There have been some hard days on the court, with some harder results to stomach over the course of the season thus far — but the best could be on the horizon.
"As a staff, we are all in on our plan, you know, we know what we're working to accomplish," Crowley said. “We know what needs to be done to get there."
The hole dug is not that deep, but the way out is nothing to be scoffed at.
"We're in a great league, playing great teams every night and certainly confident in our ability," he said. "Right now, it's just we’ve got to make sure that we're understanding how quickly we have to move to the next play."
A short memory for now as the Bonnies look to turn the corner on the second half of the season.
"I don't like to dread on losses or even if you win, I try not to think about it for so long," said Shaw. "You can't change a win or loss in the past. So you might just focus on like the present."
"I love being an underdog," said Haskell. "What were we ranked, second to last or something in our conference? We have nothing to lose when we're playing now."